Greeley Is One of the Fastest-Growing Metro Areas in the Country
An Albert Einstein mural by artist Armando Silva watches residents walk down a sidewalk in downtown Greeley, Colorado. (AP photo / David Zalubowski)news
Weld County’s population has increased 30.1 percent over the past decade, according to new census data. We researched why and how the expansion affected the community.
September 7, 2021
Talk to anyone who has lived in Denver for at least the past decade, and chances are they’ll tell you how quickly the city has moved. Traffic! Cost of living! The seemingly endless stream of transplants in Texas!
But as quickly as Mile High City expanded, there was a part of Colorado that grew much faster. And it’s probably not where you’re thinking.
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Greeley is an agricultural community that many people further south associate with the smell of cow dung that blows in Denver’s direction every time there is snow on the trail. But the area is much more than a “smelly town,” says Julie Jensen, CEO of the Greeley Area Realtor Association. It’s a growing city, attracting crowds of new residents from across the state – and across the country. From 2010 to 2020, the population of the Greeley Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) grew from 252,825 to 328,981. The 30.1 percent increase makes it the fastest growing metropolitan area in Colorado and the fourth fastest metropolitan area in the country, according to 2020 census data released last month.
The Greeley MSA spans all of Weld County, which stretches for 3,987 miles and is the third largest county by land mass. Colorado demographer Elizabeth Garner believes the region’s growth is due in part to its “perfect location.” Greeley, the county seat of Weld, is 30 miles southeast of Fort Collins, about 85 km east of Rocky Mountain National Park and about 90 km northeast of Denver. “It has some great transportation corridors,” says Garner.
A large proportion of Weld County’s residents work in the greater Denver area, according to Garner. And she believes Weld’s proximity to Larimer County, which also has strong employment and population growth, has fueled growth too. Weld and Larimer can “really build on each other,” says Garner.
Greeley’s mayor, John Gates, wasn’t “terribly surprised” to hear of the population boom either. “We knew we were growing fast,” he says.
According to Gates, the biggest factor driving development is that the average home price in Greeley is significantly lower than in the surrounding communities. According to the latest data from the Colorado Association of Realtors (CAR), the average July sales price of a single-family home in Weld County was $ 450,000, compared to $ 526,500 in Larimer County, $ 650,000 in Denver County, and $ 799,500 in Boulder District.
“If you’re buying a home, especially a primary residence, and you can buy one of the same quality for about $ 100,000 less, that’s a pretty good marketing tool,” says Gates. Another draw, he adds, is that Greeley has “growth availability,” which means plenty of room for expansion. This is not the case in other counties of Colorado, such as Boulder, which has a myriad of zoning and land-use laws. Or Broomfield, which is only 33 square miles and is the smallest of Colorado’s 64 counties.
Additionally, many people seem to view Greeley as a haven from more populated subway areas with heavier traffic, says Gates, who was born and raised in Greeley and lived there for most of his life. Jamie Goodvin, chairman of the Greeley Area Realtor Association and broker at the Remax Alliance, says a number of people recently moved to Greeley from the greater Denver area. These people, she says, are fed up with traffic and the “fast paced lifestyle” and choose Greeley for its small-town vibe.
Greeley isn’t a big city yet. The population of roughly 109,000 is Goldilocks size: it’s big enough to have urban amenities – chain restaurants, a Target, several shopping malls – yet small enough to keep the feel of it all. “Everywhere you go, you meet someone,” says Jensen, if not several people you know. “You don’t do that in a city with five million inhabitants.”
The large number of young Coloradans in Weld County also contributed to its growth, says Garner. In 2020, the median age of its residents was 34.1 years, compared to 36.2 in Denver County, 37.8 in Larimer County, and the statewide average of 37.3, according to the state demographers bureau. Because younger adults are more likely to have children than older adults, much of Weld’s growth is due to births, Garner says.
In addition, Weld County is home to the University of Northern Colorado, which enrolls nearly 11,500 students, as well as large factories for Leprino Foods, the world’s largest mozzarella cheese maker, and JBS, one of the largest meat processors in the world. Garner states that Weld was “a very growth-friendly county” in terms of its zoning policy and efforts to attract and retain businesses.
Also worth noting: Weld County is more racially and ethnically diverse than Boulder County, for example, Garner says. A large Hispanic population lives in Weld, and it is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups nationwide, Garner points out. Over the past decade, the total Hispanic population of Colorado increased 21.6 percent and the Hispanic population of Weld increased 37.4 percent. Jensen believes these diverse demographics partly explain Greeley’s growth.
Garner predicts Weld won’t grow much in 2021 as the pandemic weighs on the oil and gas sector, a key industry in the county. However, this slowed growth is likely to be “a temporary setback” rather than a permanent trend.
As with many locations in Colorado, Weld’s available real estate inventory has “decreased significantly,” says Gates. In July, Weld County’s inventory of single-family homes for sale decreased 45 percent year over year, according to CAR data. Nevertheless, the development – both in single-family and in multi-family houses – continues, especially on the west side of Greeley. “You can see it when you drive through town,” says Mandy Floreani, communications strategist at the Greeley Chamber of Commerce. “There are always new developments.”
Some residents resent Greeley’s expansion. Almost every week, either by mail or in person at a cafe or restaurant, Gates hears from someone who thinks the area has sprung up too quickly. “A couple of weeks ago a guy actually said he wanted his neighborhood back,” says Gates. “And I said, ‘That won’t happen.’ ”
Local residents, says Gates, are concerned about the increased traffic. But while the car volume has deteriorated, Gates insists it is not at the level of the traffic collapse. The average time of his evening commute, for example, has increased modestly – from about seven to eleven minutes.
In addition, the growth has sparked some positive changes. Five or ten years ago, for example, residents would have had to leave the city to eat well or to go shopping, says Gates. But now, with the influx of restaurants and shopping malls, these things can be accessed in Greeley.
Looking to the future, Gates sees Greeley as a necessity for “responsible and diversified growth”. “It is up to us that we pay attention to diversification” of single-family houses, apartment buildings, commercial real estate and industrial buildings, he says. It also recognizes the need to provide more affordable housing for the 16.9 percent of Greeley’s poor residents.
According to Gates, Greeley is preparing to double in the next 40 or 50 years. Is It Too Much Too Soon? He doesn’t think. “We’re not growing so fast that we can’t handle it,” he says. “And I don’t think we ever will.”